NYCRUNS posted this question on their Facebook page today, “Finding your optimal distance is crucial to racing your best. What’s yours, and how did you find it?”

I think for me it is the half marathon. It’s a nice long distance race but not as taxing as a full marathon is — but I still love the marathon too.

Training for the full marathon requires a huge time commitment that not only you as the runner has to buy into but those who are close to you as well. If you have ever run one you know that you can’t fake it. You can’t cram for the marathon like you can a history test. What you put in is what you get out of it.

Look at me finishing my first half marathon in Brooklyn. That is an, “Oh thank god this is over” look. Also, I think I felt as though I were going to die. But look at how happy the woman behind me is. I beat her while she was being happy.

The half marathon is similar but doesn’t require the extensive training that the full does. I’ve proven on several occasions that with a solid base and consistent running you can make descent show of things. It may not have been pretty but I got them done.

The Brooklyn Half Marathon in 2009 was my very first half. I didn’t have a training plan just a vague idea that I should increase my mileage a little bit each week. This May I will be returning to Brooklyn for my 15th half and that seems like perfection to me.

Last week was supposed to be the start of my training for Brooklyn but yeah, I had to run another half marathon through Central Park, Times Square, the Battery Tunnel, and South Street Seaport. That made this week a well needed rest week.

I’m going to try for the half marathon PR again and that means I’ve got to stick to the training plan as much as possible. In order to do this I’ll be experimenting with my two a day workouts. If this works well I’ll be using that for the NYC Marathon training so keep your fingers crossed for me.

I’ll also need to refocus on my nutrition which tanked this winter. Everything about this winter really beat me up but I’ve got get things back in shape. I’ve pulled out all of my old nutrition plans from my former nutritionist so that I can things back in order.

Perhaps most importantly I’m excited about training again. (See note above about winter.) I’m ready to feel good about my running, to want to log all of those miles, and return to being that crazy person who says that they only ran 18 miles on a given day.

I am so ready to go the distance again.